Knife Sharpening Angles By Brand Manufacturer

All knife manufacturers have target sharpening angles that they strive to meet during the manufacturing process. This target is determined based on intended use, and characteristics of the steel. Some manufacturers will publish on their websites and in other literature the target/suggested sharpening angles that the user should try to maintain during routine sharpening. Following is a table of target/suggested sharpening angles as published by manufacturers.

While these target/suggested sharpening angles are an interesting and useful starting point, they are at best just that. This is especially true if you consider that we have experienced many new knives from premium name brand manufacturers being sharpened at the factory with an up to 14 dps difference from their target/suggestion and with variations of nearly 20 degrees from one side of the blade to the other. This occurs because the final step in manufacturing is usually manual sharpening to achieve a basic level of sharpness.

You can and should achieve levels of sharpness and edge strength which are better than new. Instead of blindly following any target or suggested sharpening angles, users should reflect on how they are using the knife and their particular user experience. When properly sharpened is the force to cut low enough? During normal use are you experiencing an unacceptable degree of micro-damage such as edge rolling, denting and chipping? Selecting sharpening angles based on your user experience will optimize the performance of your knife or cutting tool.

Our Sharpening Angles By Knife Tool Use Type chart and our Sharpening Angle Decision Tree can help you select the optimized angles for your knife or cutting tool.

Please help us grow our list. If you’re aware of published sharpening angles from other manufacturers please Contact Us with the website or send us a photo of the manufacturers literature.